A raja hunting wild boars, design for a scabbard

Object Details

• Artist

  Attributed to Shevdar Gangeyagi (active 1740-1770)

• School/Tradition

  Kota school

• Label

  This is a preparatory drawing for a sword sheath that was meant to be embroidered, tooled in leather or painted. An artist cleverly exploited the format by creating a vertical landscape of rocky gorges. His energetic line emphasizes movement, action and volume, apparent especially in the the massing of parallel lines indicating the bears' long fur and the the folds of the hunters' garments. The encounters are varied and dramatic.

  Royal hunts were symbolically important expressions of kingship within the Ancient Near East, Persia and India. Beginning around 1660, artists in Kota began creating extraordinary images of rulers hunting game, which through to the mid-eighteenth century deployed calligraphic contour lines to render animals with great vivacity in highly textured landscapes. This preparatory drawing is characteristic of the Kota style of drawing.

• Provenance

  To 1967

  Sri Ram Gopal Vijaivargia, Jaipur [1]

  From 1967 to 2001

  Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), purchased from Sri Ram Gopal Vijaivargia, Jaipur in December 1967 [2]

  From 1967 to 2001

  Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), purchased from Sri Ram Gopal Vijaivargia, Jaipur in December 1967 [2]

  From 2001 to 2018

  Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Beverly Hills, California, by inheritance from Ralph Benkaim in 2001

  From 2018

  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, partial gift and purchase from Catherine Glynn Benkaim

  Notes:

  1] Ralph Benkaim purchased the drawing from Ram Gopal Vijaivargia, Jaipur in December 1967, several years before Indian paintings were classified as antiquities by the Indian government, according to his personal records, as relayed by Catherine Glynn Benkaim.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Sri Ram Gopal Vijaivargia (1905-2003)

  Ralph and Catherine Benkaim

  Catherine Glynn Benkaim

• Origin

  Kota, Rajasthan state, India

• Credit Line

  Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection — funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

  This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

  The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The National Museum of Asian Art welcomes information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections.

Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1740s, 1760s

• Name

  Benkaim, Ralph and Catherine, Benkaim, Catherine Glynn, Vijaivargia, Ram Gopal

• Place

  Kota, Rajasthan state, India

• Topic

  South Asian and Himalayan Art, Art, Animals, Hunting, Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, Bears

• Culture

  Himalayan peoples, South Asians

• Object Type

  Paintings